UNIONS WANT BAN ON SALE OF CONDEMNED SHIPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22886, 4 March 1949, Page 7

UNIONS WANT BAN ON SALE OF CONDEMNED SHIPS

(From a Reuter’s Correspondent in London.) A conference of maritime representatives of the International Transport Workers Federation passed a resolution that tonnage found unfit for use under the flag of one maritime nation should not be allowed to sail under another. Measures should be taken in the countries concerned to scrap obsolete ships, the resolution added. It asked for International action to stop the sale to Panamanian registry of ships which are obsolete, or uneconomic, or which cannot operate under their orriginal flags because they no longer satisfy the safety regulations of those countries.

The conference decided to set up a committee responsible for carrying out an International Boycott of ships transferred to the Panamanian and other flags, for the purpose of lowering accepted labour standards and to evade safety, social and currency regulations. The conference decided that European recovery programme cargoes should not be sent in ships placed on the registers of Panama, Honduras and similar countries. This would retard the economic recovery of the countries participating in E.RJP., particularly by reducing their income from shipping services. It was decided to bring the matter to the notice of the European Recovery Programme Administration and to urge affiliated unions to take appropriate action.